Page 13 of The Last War We Ever Fought

“Kind offer.” He stood, looking down at where she’d sunk inside the hole and offered a hand to her. “It’s deep enough.”

For some reason, his eyes haunted her enough to say, “I don’t want sunlight to ever reach it.”

“It won’t. Come out.”

Entranced by that beckoning, she climbed out of the hole without his aid and then helped the Gobresh girl out of hers. “I’ll walk you home.”

The girl nodded, clinging to Rowan’s arm. And Rowan sighed, wondering if the girl even realised who or what she was holding, that she’d been the main cause for her people’s demise.

Beside the coo of owls and the cicadas who’d show themselves after the rain, there was something else grinding on her nerves and patience that she’d tried so hard to master.

“Don’t you have something to do?” she asked, glowering at the God of War who’d followed after them.

“Nice of you to worry, but no, I don’t.”

“No one’s pain to sit back and laugh at?” she spat.

“None that I can think of.”

Rowan halted and spun to him, almost taking the God of War by surprise. “Go away.”

“Your hair is down.”

“What?”

“You’re only wearing a shirt, no armour, the only weapon you had was the shovel and you’ve left that behind. There could be rebels lingering by, wild animals, or the men you sent off might have realised you’ve tricked them.”

“And that concerns you why?”

He blinked. “Uncertain.”

“Go be uncertain somewhere else.”

“Are you ordering me, Rowan?”

“What if I am?”

“I am a God.”

“I do not care.”

“That I see.”

“Go annoy someone else.”

His brows jumped up at that. “I’m happy to annoy you. Might even tell you a little story on our way to take this lovely young lady safely home.”

She spun and grabbed the girl, pulling her faster towards the forest. “I don’t want to hear your damn story.”

“Then maybe the forest would like to hear it. Nature loves this story I am about to tell. It always weeps.”

“For you to stop.”

“Well, perhaps,” he agreed, to her chagrin, matching her quick steps with too much ease. “There once was—”

“Oh, unholy gods,” she murmured, and he laughed, making all of Rowan’s thoughts pause for a minute—they’d never done as such before. Rowan was always thinking.

“There once was a boy and a girl who stood at the edge of the world watching the sun rise north.”